Faithfully Dissident Daughters by Chelsea Kim Long

About the Book:

For centuries, patriarchal Christian spaces and interpretations of Scripture have distorted women’s understanding of God, their bodies, and their place in the world. Faithfully Dissident Daughters invites anyone who has felt unseen or diminished by their faith tradition to reimagine and reclaim what it means to love God and embrace themselves.

Raised in evangelical churches, Chelsea Kim Long had a clear vision of the Christian woman she was born to be: a doting wife and mother, filled with the joy of the Lord and love for her family. But after suffering a traumatic birthing experience, postpartum depression, and further reproductive loss, she found that vision―and her faith in a God who would mandate that singular role for women―shattered.

Working through the pain of these deeply feminine experiences opened her eyes to the broader ways the patriarchal Christian worldview undermined not only her but womanhood in general. The faith she’d been handed had no room for questions or nuance and even less room for the bodies, feelings, or the spiritual authority of women’s lived experience.

Through raw personal narrative and rich theological reflection, Chelsea explores the false limits the church has placed on women and how the demand for unquestioning obedience silences women’s natural intuition and erodes self-trust. Chelsea shares her search for and embrace of feminine expressions of the Divine, uncovering long-neglected images of God as Mother, Wisdom, and Spirit that have always lived within the Christian tradition. Steeped in Scripture and diverse, historic Christian traditions, this book will inspire and empower readers to become faithfully dissident by stepping into a faith that feels honest and whole through honoring women’s bodies, emotions, experiences, and innate wisdom.

My Review:

Long writes on the difficult topic of remaining faithful to Christ while being against practices in Christianity that harm people. She investigated the role of women in Christianity. She reminds readers that theology as we understand it today has not always been so clearly defined. She also reminds us of the idea of the Spirit as feminine and the fact that Wisdom is portrayed as female in Proverbs. A surprise to me, a life long Calvinist, was her well researched argument that the heart is not “desperately wicked.”

This is a good book for readers who want to remain in the love of God and the way of Christ while dissenting from distorted expressions of Christian faith. (5) Long draws from a number of Christian traditions with refreshing results. This is a thought provoking book and I recommend it.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

Chelsea Kim Long is a writer, lay theologian, and meditation teacher exploring Christianity through the lens of women’s embodied experiences and contemplative spirituality. Her work invites readers to reimagine Christianity beyond patriarchy and toward a more expansive and inclusive expression of faith. She lives in San Diego with her husband and three kids, where she co-leads an intentional neighborhood faith community grounded in belonging and justice.

Westminster John Knox Press, 212 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-An exceptional book, 4-Better than average, relevant and liked by me, 3-It is average, 2-It is below average and not liked by me, 1-It is practically unreadable.)